The Blind Roadmaker by Ian Duhig

The Blind Roadmaker by Ian Duhig

If the starting point for a number of poems in Ian Duhig's richly varied new collection is Sterne's Tristram Shandy, its presiding genius is the great eighteenth-century civil engineer, fiddler and polymath Blind Jack Metcalf - whose life Duhig here celebrates, and from whose example he draws great inspiration. Writing with an almost Burnsian eclecticism, Duhig explores urban poverty, determinism, social justice and the consolations of poetry and music on a journey that takes in everything from a riotous reimagining of Don Juan to the tragedy of Manuel Bravo (the Leeds asylum seeker from Angola who was forced to defend himself in court, and later took his own life). No poet today writes with such a sense of political and social conscience, and The Blind Roadmaker affirms Duhig's belief in poetry as a means of commemorating those who least deserve to be forgotten.

An undoubtedly stimulating, thoroughly entertaining collection. .one of Duhig's charms is that, for all his learning, he retains humility -- Kathryn Gray * Magma Review *
Ian is a one-off, a true original. In The Blind Roadmaker he charts the journeys of 18th century blind Jack Metcalf who learned to read by feeling headstones faces as well as those of today’s dispossessed with a hat’s off empathy, wit and intelligence -- Jackie Kay * Herald *

Ian Duhig worked with homeless people for fifteen years before devoting himself to writing activities full-time. He has won the Forward Best Poem Prize once and the National Poetry Competition twice. His last two books with Picador, The Lammas Hireling (2003) and The Speed of Dark (2007), were both PBS Choices and shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize. His most recent short story appeared in The New Uncanny, winner of the Shirley Jackson Best Anthology Award for 2008, and his most recent musical collaboration, with the Clerks early music consort, on their CD Don't Talk - just listen! (Signum, 2009). He lives in Leeds with his wife Jane and their son Owen.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781509809813
ISBN 10	1509809813
Title	The Blind Roadmaker
Author	Ian Duhig
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Pan Macmillan
Year published	2016-02-11
Number of pages	80
Prizes	Short-listed for Roehampton Poetry Prize 2016 (UK), Short-listed for Forward Prize for Poetry Best Collection 2016 (UK), Short-listed for T. S. Eliot Prize 2017 (UK)
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable